Size and composition of the workforce in state and territory mental health services

Page last updated: 2013

Between 1992-93 and 2010-11, the direct care workforceB in state and territory mental health services increased by 72% (see Figure 14). This is equivalent to 10,208 full-time staff.

Figure 15 summarises this trend at a national level, showing that the number of full-time equivalent direct care staff rose from 80.1 per 100,000 in 1992-93 to 108.1 per 100,000 in 2010-11. Although all jurisdictions increased the overall size of their respective workforces during this period, New South Wales reported the most growth (52%), followed by Tasmania (47%) and Queensland (43%). More detail on individual jurisdictions' growth can be found in Part 4.

The growth in the direct care workforce in state and territory mental health services equates to a 35% increase when population size is taken into account.

Table 3 summarises the composition of the mental health professional workforce since 1994-95, the year for which a breakdown by provider types first became available. It shows that all provider groups have expanded under the Strategy, but there has been a shift in the professional staffing mix. The numbers of allied health professionals grew the most (120%), followed by medical practitioners (106%) and then nurses (54%). In 2010-11, nurses accounted for 64% of the mental health professional workforce, allied health professionals for 24% and medical practitioners for 12%. This represents a drop of 7% for nurses as a percentage of the total state and territory workforce and an increase of 5% for allied health professionals, reflecting a move to develop multi-disciplinary community services.

Nationally, increases in spending by states and territories on inpatient and community-based services were greater than the work force growth in these settings. Figure 16 shows that by 2010-11, when the direct care workforce had grown 72% compared with the baseline year, recurrent expenditure had increased by 119%.

There are various reasons why higher spending may not translate into proportionally equivalent numbers of staff, and these may have a differential impact in different jurisdictions. These include, for example, rising labour costs and increases in overhead and infrastructure (including training and support) costs. Top of page

Figure 14: Number of direct care staff (FTE) employed in state and territory mental health service delivery, 1992-93 to 2010-11

Text version of figure 14

Number of direct care staff (FTE) employed in state and territory mental health service delivery: